


The Parasite Among Us

by Michaelyoakam



Category: Among Us (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Horror, Mystery, Science Fiction, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:35:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27893941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Michaelyoakam/pseuds/Michaelyoakam
Summary: Told from Red's perspective, a futuristic cargo vessel has been infected with an malevolent alien parasite whose goal is to kill every crewmate so that the ship can be captured by pirates. Red and the other crewmates must work together to quickly identify and dispose of the imposter or else be methodically taken out one by one.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 8





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Hi! I am a long-time fanfiction reader but I am trying to transition into writing. This is my first fanfiction so feedback is doubly appreciated! I plan on posting multiple chapters each week until the story is complete. I am also looking for beta readers so please reach out if you are interested in previewing chapters before they are posted. Thanks :)

It started exactly 144 days after I graduated from the Federation Academy, 121 days after I was assigned to Skeld Model T-2, and 90 days after I boarded the vessel. Upon accepting my mission, I was prepared for anything except perhaps the tedium of it all. Studying at the Academy hadn’t been the most thrilling endeavor, but the constant deluge of knowledge, simulations, exams, and stress was at least better than this.

My days were generally filled with doing the same exact tasks that I had done countless times. Among other things, I carried boxes to the cafeteria from the storage chambers in order to restock our rations. I optimized our ship’s shields in case of random asteroids or other space debris. And, most importantly, on the fourteenth hour of each day, I checked that the reactor was consuming the optimal amount of fuel for each day of our journey, and reprogrammed it if it was not. 

What my fellow crewmates did each day I barely knew. Surely somebody followed navigation protocol and somebody repaired any damages or defects in the ship. Our living quarters also always appeared to be tidy and sanitary, and our food was always ready in the cafeteria at the proper time, so I never supposed I had any reason to suspect anybody was slacking off on their tasks.

Sure, everybody seemed to be nice in passing. They greeted me when I passed them in the halls and every now and again I stumbled upon a couple of them together in a room speaking in hushed voices. They always made sure to leave when they saw me though. We ate each meal simultaneously, but spaced apart, and at the end of each day we returned to our individual resting pods. The Academy instilled in us the importance of distancing ourselves from each other. Our tasks were to be our first and only priority, and we were not to form personal attachments just in case… 

No, it is better to not dwell on all the things that could go wrong between crewmates.

Still, it was hard to live, eat and sleep with total strangers. In fact, I didn’t even know what any of them even looked like. Nor did I know any of their names. The only thing that distinguished each of us from one another was the color of our containment suits. Each suit had its own closed ventilation system with replacement 02 canisters in a room aptly called “O2.” This way, oxygen was more efficiently distributed on an individual basis instead of circulated around the entire ship. The suits also contained electronic visors that displayed in the upper-left corner of our vision our remaining tasks for the day and in the upper-right corner the date, time, and our location on the ship.

While we were not allowed to have preferences about the color of our functionally identical suits, I could not help but think about how pleased I was when the transport coordinators handed me a bright red suit at the onset of our mission. Red certainly stood out much more than the black, white, and dark blue suit varieties from the monochromatic backgrounds present in the ship. My beautiful suit was one of my few daily comforts and between tasks I often found myself staring at the red of my thickly gloved hands. The color was warm, ostentatious, and helped distract me from the dreariness of my surroundings. I sometimes wondered how my crewmates felt about the color of the suits they were assigned, but I did not dare ask. 

——————————————————————————————————————————

One of my more long-term tasks was to inventory our cargo found in the cargo hold. In fact, each of us had been assigned to inventory a single section of the hold as the area itself was sprawling and took up a significant portion of the ship. I sometimes saw different crewmates enter and leave the area, but since we tend to do our work at different times of the day, there were rarely more than one of us in the hold at any given time. 

That day was no exception. 

Each cargo box stored in the hold stood at around 7 meters tall and 7 meters wide. They were stacked in seemingly endless rows of 3 and I firmly believed that even if each and every crewmate worked together, we could still not move a single box by hand. Fortunately, there were several strategically placed user terminals around the hold that allowed us to control a highly robust organizing system. In order to inspect a crate, one needed only input the crate’s location ID and the desired row would first separate itself from the rest, then a large crane would come down and grab a hold of the box, finally dropping it off at the viewing platform next to the terminal. Each time I witnessed this spectacle, I was reminded of the retro vending machines I would occasionally utilize at home. The entire selection process took only about three minutes, which was fortunate since there were quite a few boxes to inventory. 

Opening the boxes was also fairly intuitive. Each one had an electronic lock that, when activated, opened the top of the box. Actually counting what was inside, however, could be a bit more tricky. When I opened the first box of that day, I noticed it was filled with iron ingots arranged in neat rows of ten. To determine how many ingots there were total, I needed only divide the total weight of the filled box minus the standard weight of an empty box by the weight of a single iron ingot. The regulated gravitational field of the ship made such a calculation possible. 

Most of the boxes were filled with similar contents. Three years at the Academy all so that I could spend years at a time safeguarding loads of raw materials as they were transported across space from resource-rich colonies to resource-depleted central planets. Still, I was well-compensated for my labor and I was proud to oversee such an economically important mission and incredibly expensive transport vessel. 

Something odd about the next box broke me out of my usual stupor, however. As it was being set down by the crane, I had not heard the usual thump accompanied by the placement of a heavy container. I clicked on the release button and promptly stepped onto the viewing platform. No amount of pride in my work or financial compensation could have come close to preparing me for what I saw in that box.

Inside the box was a single multicolored egg that has burst open at the top. The large, fragmented shell of the egg was patterned with all sorts of bright, shimmering colors, similar to that of an oil slick. All things considered, it was quite a site to behold and I remembered hearing that such eggs, when unhatched, were highly prized as decorative objects. However, that was definitely not the case with this egg as I could tell it had hatched not just by sight alone, but by the smell permeating from the now-opened box. The cargo hold now smelled like a gas leak had caused some poor soul to vomit everywhere. Though the retched smell was the least of my concerns, I was nonetheless thankful in the moment that my suit’s ventilation system shielded me from the worst of it.

The Academy had well-prepared us for just about every possible unforeseen circumstance. I knew exactly what to do in case of attack from another ship, a mutiny among crewmates, or even the failure of one of the ship’s crucial mechanisms. Hell, I even knew what to do in the event a fellow crewmate experienced a sudden bout of pregnancy. The Federation had seen all of these things before, and it was for that reason each ship was equipped with a room dedicated entirely to medical intervention. 

With my days at the Academy still fresh in my mind, I knew exactly what was in that egg. Stories floated around about a rare parasite used by pirates to take control of a ship from the inside. Apparently, pirates would have a decoy cargo box placed among the real cargo boxes. After a relatively brief incubation period, a large parasitic worm would hatch and burrow its way out of the structurally-weak decoy box. It would then infect a single crewmate by burrowing into their ear and lead them to methodically kill all nearby living creatures whilst maintaining the pretense of normalcy. Only when it was truly alone would the parasite finally kill the host and feed off of its corpse. The pirates could then capture the abandoned ship with ease, kill off the parasites, and collect more eggs for future ventures.

While such a scenario was not unheard of, it was still incredibly uncommon due to the rarity of the parasite and the many uncertainties incurred with putting such a plan into action. It was far more common for pirates to straight-up attack transport vessels than to use such clandestine measures. However, I knew that these measures, once successfully initiated, were terrifyingly successful. After further inspection, I discovered a small circular hole at the back of the box. I then picked up a piece of the surprisingly tough eggshell and climbed out of the cargo box.

I took just a brief moment to stare at the eggshell in my hands. As I stared at it, my initial shock at such a discovery quickly turned to unabated horror as I began to piece together what was soon to unfold. If I could have seen my face reflected in my helmet, I would have surely seen an expression plastered on my face the likes of which had never appeared before. With trembling hands, I rushed off to tell my crewmates the horrifying news. As I approached the meeting room, my mind was focused on a single thought:

“There is an impostor among us.”

——————————————————————————————————————————


	2. Emergency Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: While this may be one of my first attempts at dialogue, I hope I did not disappoint too much. I am also trying to use gender-neutral language regarding the crewmates as gender is not present in the game this story is based on. This is a stylistic choice that I hope is not too confusing. Feedback is always appreciated!

As quickly as I could, I raced upstairs, passed the engine rooms and our living quarters, and with the cursed shell still in my hands, I stumbled into our central meeting room, which also served as our cafeteria. Currently, only Yellow and White were present. Our cafeteria had five large tables, four of which were adjacent to a wall with the fifth in the center of the room. Though they were seated on opposite sides of the room, they both turned their visors towards my direction.

I rapidly approached the center table which had a large red button encased in glass. As I lifted the glass, White suddenly stood up and shouted, “What the hell do you think-”

But before White could finish asking their question, I slammed my gloved hand down on the button. A high-pitched alarm blared out of seemingly nowhere and the lights of the ship turned red. Both White and Yellow were now standing, but the colored light made it hard to distinguish the colors of their suits. After only a few seconds, the alarm faded away and the lights returned to normal.

“Okay,” I said, “Hopefully everybody should now be on their way here.”

“Why did you do that,” said White. “Could whatever it is really not wait until after dinner? I have a lot of work left to do today and I don’t like to be inter-”

“What’s going on?” asked Green as both Green and Black entered the room. 

“I’ll tell you everything as soon as the others arrive,” I said. “We are still waiting on Blue, Purple, and Orange.”

“What about Orange?” asked Orange as they stepped into the room with Blue and Purple. “Don’t tell me that this is a surprise party for me because I am really not in the mood.”

“No, this is serious,” I said in as even a voice as I could muster. “I just found this in a storage crate not twenty minutes ago.”

I lifted up the eggshell and several crewmates took a few steps closer while others instinctively took a few steps back. 

“It looks like a hard piece of goop if you ask me,” said Green upon closely examining the shell. “Is that really what all the fuss is about?”

“That ‘piece of goop’ may very well be the end of you” said Blue. “Thank you for calling us together, Red. You did the right thing.”

Blue looked around the room and made sure that all visors were upon them. “For those of you who don’t remember your training, that is an eggshell belonging to the parasitoidal species 'Termania Cranus.' It is an uncommon parasitic worm that is sometimes used as an sleeper agent of biological warfare. Once it has fully taken over the host’s body and mind, it drives the host to kill all other nearby organisms so that it can safely use the host as an incubator.” 

As this point, Orange interjected, “Why would anybody put something like that on this ship?!”

I spoke up and pointed out that it becomes incredibly easy to commandeer a ship when there is nobody left alive to put up a fight. With that, the room quieted and several crewmates sat down. 

After a brief silence, Green lifted their head from the table and asked “Well, what can we do?”

“I have been working on interstellar cargo transport for more than a decade” said Blue. “I have seen this happen before. Fortunately, we figured out who was infected before they were able to harm anyone.”

“But how?” asked Green.

“I interviewed each crewmember and realized someone’s answers didn’t make a lot of sense. It turns out that their mind had not yet been fully corrupted. Unfortunately, there’s no telling how long ago that egg hatched. The worm might still be crawling around or someone might already be fully infected.”

“Wait,” exclaimed Purple from the back of the room. “How do we know that there is only the one egg?!”

“We don’t,” replied Blue shaking their head. “It is theoretically possible for two or more parasites to work in tandem. But, due to the rarity of those eggs, and the difficulty of covertly stashing them on the ship, it seems unlikely that there would be more than one.”

“Oh God, we are all going to die…” said Green with a whimper as their head and body slumped over the table.

“No,” said Purple with a touch of confidence in their voice. “We know what we have to do. Blue already told us. We need someone to check over each crewmate and make sure that nothing they say is suspicious.”

“Blue seems to know everything about everything,” said Orange. “I vote that we have Blue interview everyone.”

Green, Yellow, and White all shook their heads in agreement. For a moment, it seemed like all was settled until Purple once again spoke up.

“No, I don’t think that is a good idea.”

Everyone quickly turned to look at Purple.

“For all we know, Blue might already be infected. Any of us could be at this point. Anybody except Red.”

A couple of crewmates tilted their heads and I myself was a bit confused about what logic Purple was trying to pull. 

“I agree,” said Blue. “An infected crewmate would have never called this emergency meeting. They would have been far better off keeping everybody in the dark about what’s going on so that when it comes time to kill, nobody would have seen it coming. Therefore, Red is the only crewmate we can trust for the moment.”

“But this is my first haul,” I sputtered. “I don’t even know what kinds of questions to ask. How can I possibly figure out who is infected if I don’t know anybody on this ship to begin with?!”

“You will figure it out,” said Blue. “I can tell that you have a good head underneath that helmet. You can take over the security room. Whenever you want to speak with someone, just make an announcement on the speakers. Make sure to also check the cameras for suspicious behavior. Everybody else, just make sure to come when you are called and we will all be safe. Agreed?”

Everybody seemed to nod at once and with that we were dismissed back to our tasks at hand. After all, there was still dinner to prepare, floors to clean, and engines to refuel. Yet, nobody could deny that the atmosphere of the ship had darkened considerably and the crewmates made sure to distance themselves from each other even more than usual. Furtive glances over their shoulders served as constant reminders for the crewmates that the imposter, if there even was one, could be coming for them at any time.


	3. Chapter 3: The Interviews

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a lot of fun in this chapter exploring the personalities of the different crewmates. As always, feedback is greatly appreciated!

I awoke the next morning with a start. As the ship hurtles through space, it can be difficult to maintain a regular sleep schedule due to the lack of a consistent day/night cycle. Still, I tried to sleep at around 24:00 each “night” and wake up at 08:00 each “day.” As I put on my helmet, my visor indicated that it was actually 09:00. I was an hour late for the day. The looming threat of infection or murder naturally made it quite difficult to sleep, so it took me a lot longer to drift under than it normally would. I tried not to beat myself up for failing to stick to my schedule, given the circumstances. Furthermore, I did not have to do my normal tasks for the day. Instead, I needed to begin interviewing crewmates to look for…something. I was not really sure what I was looking for, but hopefully I would recognize it when I found it. If I could find it…

Yes, it was definitely better that I was rested enough to deal with the task at hand. With that, I refreshed myself quickly and put on the rest of my suit. As I looked down at the red expanse of my suited body, an unsettling thought came over me. If I were to be killed, my suit might remained unchanged from the stains of my blood. Not to mention how well my suit would hide any blood stains from other crewmates…

I pushed those treacherous thoughts from my head and exited my sleeping pod. I noticed that Orange, Purple, and Yellow’s pods were still in use. Upon further reflection, I realized that I almost never see those three until I have finished with the bulk of my tasks. I noted that they must work opposite hours, so I would have to interview them after the others.

With that, I began to head to the security room which was located on the opposite side of the cafeteria. As I made my way, I looked up at the cameras that dotted the walls here and there. I had never really paid them much mind before, but I was thankful in that moment for the added sense of security. If there was any suspicious behavior coming from a crewmate, hopefully it would be caught on camera. 

I arrived to the security room and realized that I was not the only one there. I entered as Blue turned away from a wall with a dozen screens to face me. I pulled a nearby chair to the table that Blue was sitting at and took a seat.

“I hope I didn’t keep you waiting. I didn’t realize you would be here.”

“Don’t worry about it. I am used to spending quite a bit of time in this room. One of my main tasks is to keep watch and make sure that the others are following protocol properly. You are usually so good at starting your tasks on time. Is everything okay?”

“I had difficulty sleeping,” I offered. I paused briefly and then said, “Actually, I still don’t think I can do this. I don’t know what kinds of questions to ask let alone what kind of answers to expect. If you have spent so much time watching everybody, why don’t you do this?”

“I stand by what we agreed yesterday,” Blue replied. “The results won’t be truly valid unless they come from you. Besides, I think that maybe it was fate that you, the youngest among us, discovered the cracked egg. If that’s true, then it is only right that you follow through on your discovery.”

“Is it that obvious that I am young?”

“Yes.”

“Well, if I am going to do these interviews, maybe I should start now. Besides security, what other tasks do you do on this ship?”

“That’s a great question,” Blue said in a chipper tone. I could almost imagine that they were smiling under their helmet.

“I am also responsible for making sure the ship is following its proper course and making adjustments to its trajectory every now and then. I split my time between this room and the navigation room.”

“Which room do you like more?”

“This one. Tracking you all as you do your work is at least a little more interesting than tracking the ship.”

“Okay, I am pretty sure that you are not some kind of impostor, so maybe I should move on to my next interview. Today is probably going to be a long day for me.”

Blue stood up, wished me the best of luck, and reminded me that I could use the intercom on the table to call in anyone I wished to interview. I took Blue’s place and turned to look at the many screens that populated the room.

I saw Blue on their way towards the navigation room. Nothing strange there… I then saw Green starting to set up lunch in the cafeteria. That seemed important so I had better not interrupt that. Turning my gaze to the other side of the ship, I saw White doing something in the reactor room and Black in the adjacent lower engine room. Both tasks seemed important so I was hesitant to interrupt. But, without spotting anybody else up and about, I suppose I had no choice. I had to call one of them in. 

I pushed down the button next to the microphone on the intercom panel and, in as calm a tone as I could muster, asked White to promptly meet me in the security room.

On camera, I saw White shake their head and put down their tools. They then began to make their way across the ship. I tracked them for the entire 10 minute journey to the security room. As White entered, I did just as Blue had done and turned to greet them. White quickly sat down and said, “Can we make this quick? I feel fine and really don’t have time for this. Unless you want the ship to fall apart that is.”

“Oh?” I said, trying to not get flustered. “What were you working on?”

“In case you didn’t know,” replied White, “I am the ship’s specialized mechanic, which means I spend all day every day optimizing the reactor and fixing the ship’s many electrical deficiencies.”

“Surely there can’t be that much wrong with the ship.”

“You would think,” White quipped. “But every day I find new problems with this trillion dollar piece of crap metal flying through space. With only a crew of eight, tons of precious cargo, and absolutely no way of contacting anyone on the ground, you would have thought that whoever built this thing would have built it carefully, but every one of my days proves that you would be mistaken.”

“You sound upset. Do you not like your job?”

“All I have to say is that a job is a job is a job. Whether I like it or not is irrelevant. All that matters is that I am paid well because I have a family at home that is relying on me.”

“And do you feel okay?”

“I told you before: I feel fine. I haven’t noticed anything out of the ordinary.”

Having run out of questions, I simply nodded in agreement. 

“Can I go now? I have to make sure the reactor is consuming enough fuel so that we don’t arrive even a day later than expected.

Once again, I nodded my head and in a flash White got up and exited the room. 

“That was…painful,” I said to nobody in particular as I turned around to face the screens. Blue was now in the navigation room carefully studying some holographic diagrams. Green still seemed to be preparing lunch, and Black was still tinkering with one of the ship’s thruster engines. I pressed down the button on the intercom and this time asked for Black to make their way to the security room. 

Only a little more than an hour had passed since first meeting with Blue and I already felt drained. Hopefully the rest of the interviews would pass more easily since I still had a long day ahead of me. As I was beginning to get lost in all that I had to do for the day, Black entered the room and deftly took a seat.

I greeted Black and waited for a similar reply, but none came. I waited some more for Black to say something, but still Black just sat opposite me saying nothing.

“Why aren’t you saying anything?” I ventured.

“You haven’t asked me a question yet,” said Black in a deep and commanding voice.

“Oh. I guess that’s true. In that case, how are you doing?”

“The same,” was the simple reply.

“That’s good…I think. Nothing unusual has happened to you recently?”

“No.”

“Well…um…what do you do here? I mean for the ship in general?”

“I run daily inspections on each of the thruster engines. Most of the time they are working just fine. Every now and then they need some fine-tuning, but so far nothing serious.”

“Have you always worked on engines?”

“Yes, I spent an extra year at The Academy specializing in mechanics. I have always found machines to be more interesting than other things, especially other people.”

“Right…”

By that point I had run out of questions and Black certainly wasn’t egging me on any further. Our conversation quickly descended into silence. I continued to stare at Black who remained silent and immobile. Fortunately, the silence was broken by a chime that echoed through the room. Glancing at the cameras revealed to me what I already knew: Green had finished with lunch and was now summoning us to the cafeteria. 

“Okay,” I said, “you seem alright to me. How about we end this interview early and go and grab some food?”

“Agreed.”

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

During our quick lunch break, I took a moment to make sure that the entire crew was in attendance. Though we were all spaced apart during the meal, everyone was there. For Purple, Orange, and Yellow, it must have been breakfast. I made sure to save myself the use of the intercom by asking Green to meet me in the security room after they were finished. I did not have to wait long for Green arrived only a few minutes after I did. 

“How is everything?” I asked.

“Good,” said Green. “You caught me at a decent moment. I don’t usually have much to do following lunch. In a few hours I will start dinner.”

“I’m glad. You know, I have never said this before, but you do a great job preparing our food. So thank you for that…”

“Really, it’s nothing. Everything comes prepackaged with simple instructions on how to prepare it. I used to do the same thing before The Academy. The only difference is that I am paid much better just for being on the ship.”

“You really don’t mind being here? On the ship that is.” I silently cursed at myself for being so awkward.

“Not at all,” Green replied simply. “I don’t really have much in the way of family or friends back at home so living here really isn’t that different.”

“Well, if you are always by yourself, what do you do when you are at home?”

“Whatever the hell I want,” Green said with a laugh. “I have a ton of hobbies. I like to write, draw, and I can cook way better than what I am assigned to serve on this ship.”

Then, with a more serious tone, Green asked, “Have you figured out if anybody on the ship’s infected yet? I don’t think I am, and I definitely don’t want to be killed when I still have a long life ahead of me. There’s still so much I haven’t done yet…”

“No, so far nobody has said anything to me that really stands out. We can’t even be sure that the worm isn’t still roaming around, waiting for its chance to strike.”

“That’s a shame. I really just want this thing to be over already, you know? I don’t like to spend all my time waiting for something to happen.”

“Yeah, I understand. I feel the same way. Hopefully we will figure this out soon…”

Green nodded in agreement, and then stood up, thanked me for my time and for doing these interviews, and announced that it was time to return to the cafeteria. I was almost sad to see Green go because Green’s was the first interview (besides Blue’s which did not really feel like an interview) that I actually somewhat enjoyed. Still though, I could not waste too much time before doing the next one. 

I checked the cameras and saw Yellow cleaning out the now-empty living quarters. White and Black were probably downstairs doing inventory, Blue was still in the navigation room but seemed to be idling, and Purple was refilling cannisters in the 02 room. Orange was nowhere to be found. I decided to call Yellow and ask that they meet me in the security room as soon as they could.

Immediately after making the announcement, I saw Yellow ditch their supply cart and rush over to the security room. Within a matter of minutes, Yellow arrived and before even taking a seat asked, “Is everything okay?”

“Yes,” I replied. “I just wanted to talk to for you a moment and scope things okay. Make sure you are feeling okay and everything.”

“Oh,” said Yellow. “Yes, everything is fine.”

“Did I catch you at a good time?”

“Yes, I was just about finished with cleaning the sleeping pods. You know, every day I wash the bedding, restock the facilities, make sure everything is tidy, you know?”

“Yes,” I said. “Everything always looks great so thank you for doing your tasks so effectively.”

“Thank you,” Yellow said rather sheepishly. 

“Are you sure everything is okay?” I asked.

“Yes, but to be honest I am just not very good at talking with people. Actually, there’s not much that I am good at. I think that is why The Federation always assigns me to janitorial duties. I really don’t mind though.”

“I am sure that you are better than you think.” After a brief pause, I said, “Come to think of it, I saw you and White together yesterday and I think I have seen you two together before. Do you know each other?”

“Sure,” Yellow replied. “We know each other from a previous voyage a few years ago.”

“Does White seem off to you? White wasn’t very pleasant when I spoke with them earlier today.”

“I don’t think so. White is always like that. They have been working for a long time and I think the job just wears on them. White is actually really great when you get to know them.”

“Okay, I trust your opinion. It’s just that I really don’t know anyone here well enough to tell if they are acting suspiciously or not.”

“Well, I think that you will figure things out if you keep looking,” Yellow said while still glancing at the floor. 

“Thanks, but that means I should probably continue on with my last couple of interviews.”

With that, Yellow stood up and, without saying a word, disappeared just as quickly as they arrived. Turning back to the different monitors, I noticed that Purple had disappeared but Orange was now tinkering in the weapons room. I announced that I would like to now meet with Orange over the intercom. It look a couple minutes for Orange to finally leave the weapons room and almost a half-hour had passed before Orange finally made it to the security room.

Orange took a seat and said, “Well…”

“What?” I said with a look of confusion on my face.

“Don’t you have some kind of script you are going to give me?”

“No, my style is a little more casual than that,” I replied with just a touch of annoyance. 

“Then what do you want to talk about, your casualness?”

“How about I start by asking you what your job is here on the ship.”

“Okay,” said Orange as they leaned back in their chair.

“Well…” I said as I made some kind of fleeting gesture with my hands.

“Aren’t you going to ask me what my job is?”

“Fine. What is your job on the ship?”

“Great question! My job is being totally useless. Every day, if you can even call my day a day, I prime the ship’s weapons in case of an attack that never comes. Also, I am the ship’s designated medic in case anybody gets sick, which nobody ever does because there are no pathogens aboard this ship.”

“At least,” continued Orange now leaning forward in their chair, “until now.”

I shuddered, but managed to compose myself enough to ask if Orange noticed anything unusual these past few days.

“I wish I could help you, I really do, but sorry. I haven’t seen or felt anything unusual these past few days. And I would know! I’m a doctor after all. Am I free to go?”

“I don’t know,” I replied with a grin hidden on my face, “are you?”

But before Orange could make any sort of sarcastic reply, a deafening alarm suddenly blared out into the room and the lights suddenly turned red. We both jumped out of our seats and rushed to the cafeteria. I thought we had made it in record time, but when we entered the space, I saw that there were already five other crewmates present.

Just as the alarm stopped and the lights returned to normal, I turned to Blue and asked, “What’s going on?”

Blue turned to me and said in a voice barely more audible than a whisper:

“Purple’s body was found downstairs.”


	4. The Pairs

“Oh shit,” Green muttered under their breath.

For a few seconds, the crewmates just stood around the meeting room scarcely making a sound.

“Well, at least now we know that somebody on the ship is definitely infected,” said Orange as the rest of the crewmates turned to look at them.

“What? I was tired of waiting for the other shoe to drop. That’s all,” said Orange making a few dismissive gestures.

“Show some respect for your fallen comrade!” shouted White with a tone sharp enough to cut through the ship’s steel exterior. 

“Unless of course you would like to be next,” said Black ominously. 

“That’s enough, everybody!” said Blue. “We need to think rationally about this. Orange, you’re the medic, right? That means you’re in charge of dealing with the body.”

Orange gave a single nod of agreement.

“We also need to avoid places that don’t have any cameras. None of you can do any inventory until we’re safe again.”

“Wait,” Green interjected. “Even if there aren’t any cameras downstairs, can’t we figure out which one of us is infected by who went down there recently?”

“Yes, except most of us either went down there or were otherwise in a blind spot at some point today,” I said. “Also, sorry if I am a bit out of the loop, but who found the body?”

“I did,” said Blue. “Do you know who didn’t do inventory today, Red?”

After thinking back a bit, I said that only myself and Green could be accounted for at all points of the day.

“Well that doesn’t narrow it down much at all!” said White. “And does anybody seem suspicious to you, Red? You spent all day talking to us, didn’t you?”

I shook my head and replied, “I told you before: I don’t know any of you well enough to tell if you are acting suspiciously or not.”

“I suppose it can’t be helped,” said Blue shaking their head.

“I have a proposition for you all,” said Green. “We need to split into teams of two or three and group up as we do our tasks. It would be hard for somebody to take on more than one crewmate at a time without somebody getting away.”

“But that means that one of us would end up with a killer!” cried Orange. “Besides, we have tasks scattered all over the ship. We couldn’t possibly get everything done if we had to work in pairs.”

“Didn’t you tell me today that your tasks are useless?” I quipped.

“Yeah, but now I have a body to deal with.”

“And wouldn’t that be much easier if you had somebody to help you?”

With that, Orange seemed to quiet down a bit.

“Okay,” said Blue. “We can suspend all non-essential tasks until we get this figured out. I leave it all to you to determine what can reasonably be put off or not. And, we can group crewmates by what tasks are close to each other.”

“I…I want to be grouped up with Red,” Green sputtered.

Everybody watched as Green walked over to my side.

“What? Red said that I can’t be some kind of impostor because I didn’t go down to the inventory room today, right? It would be unfair to group us with someone unsafe.”

“Whatever,” said White. “I should be grouped with Black since we tend to work in adjacent rooms anyway.”

“I have no objections to that,” said Black. 

“Then that just leaves Orange, Yellow, and myself,” said Blue.

“I don’t mind either of you,” said Orange, “but Yellow and I can’t do anything if we are holed up in the security room with you all day.” 

“Fine,” said Blue. “Then you two can pair up and I can watch things by myself. That way if I see anything amiss I can make an announcement over the intercom.”

By this point in the discussion the excitement of the discovery had turned to a dread that began to weigh me down more and more. Despite everything going on, I knew that I would still need sleep to function.

“What about the night shift?” I asked. “With Purple gone, we will need more than just Orange and Yellow to look after things. 

“I’ll stay up tonight,” said Blue. “Maybe you and Green can relieve me tomorrow after lunch?”

With the logistics of our new arrangement more or less sorted out, the crew, now paired up, departed for different parts of the ship. I stayed behind with Green as they prepared dinner.

After I could bear the tension in the room no longer, I broke down and asked Green who they thought the imposter was.

“I honestly have no idea, but I know it is not you,” said Green whose voice reverberated from the back room.

“Yeah, me neither.”

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

After I checked and made sure that everybody save for Orange, Yellow, and Blue were all squared away in their sleeping pods, I retreated to my own. I shut off the light, but continued to stare at the surrounding darkness. I could not help but wonder whether the imposter was already asleep or not. Where they in the same room as me or where they out and about? I had to have spoken with the imposter privately today. I racked my brain for answers that were nowhere to be found. 

Blue was being so helpful lately, but were they just overcompensating for something else? Yellow seemed genuinely diffident, and Black seemed legitimately uncaring, but perhaps their silence was just an excuse to avoid self-incrimination. And I had no idea how what to think about White and Orange. 

This was all so confusing and I while I dared to hope that everything would turn out okay in the end, I could scarcely believe it. Things did not turn out okay for Purple. Poor Purple. I hadn’t had the chance to speak with them and I mourned the fact that now I never will. 

I also could not help but wonder about the fate of the rest of the crew. When we find the imposter, would we kill them? Could we imprison them and hope that they could still be saved when we land? Would this whole experience bring the crew closer together or would it drive us further apart?

Despite these thoughts that were flowing through my head, my body grew heavier and heavier until the thoughts themselves became incoherent. It may have taken an extra hour or so, but I finally managed to fall asleep amidst the chaos. 

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

I woke up confused and in a haze until until I put on my visor and saw the time. It was 10:00 and I had overslept by two hours. I quickly got the rest of the way dressed and stepped out. Orange and Yellow were in their pods, but Green was nowhere to be seen.

“Why did Green not wake me up? It’s too dangerous to be alone right now!” I thought aloud as I rushed towards the cafeteria. 

I knew something was wrong the moment I entered the space. The stench of blood was heavy in the air. I rushed towards the backroom and almost tripped in the process. 

Green’s torn suit and red-stained body was lying on the floor just behind the central table. It looked as though Green had tried to reach the red button, but had been stopped just before they could get to it.

“You idiot. This is your own damn fault,” I whispered as I knelt towards the ground. Tears pooled in my eyes, but I hardened my heart and pushed down my emotions. Years of Academy training had taught me that emotions were never useful in dire situations. I pushed the button and that now too familiar flash of red and screeching alarm sprung to life.

One by one other crewmates rushed in but quickly grew silent at the sight of Green’s mangled corpse. Without saying a word, each crewmate ascertained that Green had been killed not by strangulation, poison, or other less brutal means. Rather, it looked as though something large and sharp had pierced the center of Green’s body. I could think of nothing on the ship that could make sure a wound.

Black, who was the first to say anything once the alarm stopped, said, “How did this happen? Red, weren’t you supposed to watch Green's back?”

“Yes,” I replied. “But I overslept and Green left without me.” 

“How inconvenient. How do we know that you haven’t been the one infected this whole time!”

“If I was infected, why would I call this meeting? Besides, I couldn’t have killed Purple, I was doing interviews all day!”

“How do we know you didn’t slip out between interviews when nobody was looking?!”

“I really hate to interrupt such an exciting line of questioning,” interjected Orange, “but where’s Blue? Wouldn’t Blue have seen everything go down on the security cameras?”

Upon noticing that Blue was indeed not present, everybody rushed to the security room. Sitting at the small table was Blue’s body which looked much the same as Green’s. Blue was slumped over and limp. A gaping wound at the center of Blue’s body stretched down to form a pool of blood and broken glass on the floor. Each of the screens behind Blue had been shattered and all one could now hear was the sound of crackling electricity.

With no Blue and no cameras, I knew that we were doomed.


End file.
